1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically adjusting directions of light axes or lighting areas of light beams emitted from vehicle headlights in a horizontal direction on the basis of a steered angle of a steering wheel.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatically adjusting a direction of a light axis of a vehicle headlight is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-52975. This document discloses a swivel control technique (beam control technique) characterized by estimating accurately a future position of a moving vehicle within a predetermined time as a current target position of light beams of swingable headlights installed on this vehicle (referred to as auxiliary headlights hereinafter) in addition to normal fixed headlights. This swivel control is for providing the driver of the vehicle with good visibility in the forward direction while the vehicle is turning.
However, this swivel control technique has a problem in that, when the vehicle makes a turn with a relatively large radius, the effect of improving the visibility in the forward direction is little, electric power of a vehicle-mounted battery is therefore consumed uselessly, and on top of that, the driver feels unnatural and awkward, even if the future position of the vehicle is estimated accurately.